The Sydney-born Filipino star has been in showbiz since she was a child, but is only now seeing a genuine push for diversity in storylines, as well as among cast and crew.Those deeply-seeded boundaries in Hollywood were majorly tested with her latest TV show, The Cleaning Lady, which became Fox’s first production to be produced by and star Southeast Asian actors at the centre of the story.“To be honest with you, I was just really shocked at the risks that Fox was gonna take,” Millan tells news.com.au from New York.“The fact that we really embraced such a diverse cast … It’s just a really groundbreaking series. It was immensely different for me being surrounded with so many different cultures and the fact that the show is a wonderful platform for marginalised voices. For me, in a sense, just the fact that I’m playing Filipino was a shock in itself. “With all of that being said, it’s always just kind of like … You never know where it’s gonna go, but I’m so happy that it was such a positive response with the representation. It’s wonderful that people are really relating to it.”The 10-part crime show – which airs its finale on Foxtel tonight – has indeed been incredibly popular, particularly in the US, with its ratings continuing to climb each week.It focuses on Cambodian surgeon Thony De La Rosa (Elodie Yung), who travels to the US to secure lifesaving treatment for her son. But things go awry when she becomes an undocumented worker so she can stay in the country, where she ultimately becomes a cleaning lady for a crime syndicate.Millan plays De La Rosa’s sister-in-law Fiona, a role she managed to secure after filming her audition from her loud, tiny bathroom in New York.“During that time was Covid and they were auditioning only through self tapes, and there was a lot of noise just outside my apartment, it was the closest and the quietest place that I could film my audition,” she says.“My sister was also just squished in my bathroom to do the reading with me. Covid just really allowed for more creativity in our self tapes I think.”There’s a growing fan-led campaign for The Cleaning Lady to be given the green light for a second season, something Millan is entirely on-board for.“The fans are very passionate about the show and there’s definitely prospects, but I’m just crossing all fingers, toes, and doing my Eagle pose,” she says.“At the beginning of my career I played all the stereotypes, and the difference is it was two-dimensional. There weren’t any layers and it was just a point of view from a very narrow narrative.“But now I think the audiences are very sophisticated and are aware of the different cultures that it allows for more depth in the characters that are being written for Asian roles or diverse roles in general. “So I keep saying how groundbreaking this show is because there’s just so many cultures involved and, and not in a stereotypical way, it’s just humanised.”The Cleaning Lady finale airs tonight at 9pm on FOX One and catch every episode On Demand on FOXTEL
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